The Crossroads Room and Cocktail Lounge were at Dearborn Station. The latter is advertized on a Union Station matchbook. Earlier, there were the Restaurant [Dining Room], Lunch Room and several news stands.

Dearborn Station is at 47 West Polk Street, which is why it is sometimes referred to as Polk Street Station. Dearborn Street T’s into Polk Street in front of the station.

Dearborn Station was the oldest of the six intercity train stations serving downtown Chicago during the heyday of rail in the twentieth century. The Romanesque Revival structure opened on May 8, 1885. The three-story building’s exterior walls and twelve-story clock tower were composed of pink granite and red pressed brick topped by a number of steeply-pitched roofs. Modifications to the structure following a fire in 1922 included eliminating the original pitched roof profile. Behind the head house were the train platforms, shielded by a large train shed.

The station was closed on May 2, 1971, as the first step of Amtrak’s consolidation of Chicago’s remaining intercity train operations at Union Station. By 1976, Dearborn Station’s trainshed was demolished and tracks were removed. The train station stood abandoned into the mid-1980s when it was converted to retail and office space, helping to revitalize Printers Row District of Chicago. The former rail yards provided the land that is now known as Dearborn Park. It remains one of the oldest railroad stations in the United States and is the last remaining early downtown train station in Chicago.

The Field Building Drug Store is listed in the back of The Fred Harvey Cookbook. My Fred Harvey Illinois Tollway placemat locates the Field Building Drug Store at 118 West Adams Street.

LaSalle National Bank Building (formerly known as the Field Building) is an art deco office building at 135 South LaSalle Street in the Loop area of Chicago. The architect was the firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, which captured the majority of the big commissions from 1912 to 1936, including such iconic works as the Wrigley Building, Merchandise Mart, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Civic Opera House, and the old main Chicago post office. They also created the iconic Terminal Tower in Cleveland [another significant Fred Harvey location].

The construction of LaSalle National Bank Building was started in 1931 and completed 1934 as a 535 feet (163 m) 45-story skyscraper on the site bounded by South Clark Street, South LaSalle Street and West Adams Street. It is considered the last major office building erected in Chicago prior to the Great Depression/World War II construction hiatus which ended with the building of One Prudential Plaza in 1955.

So, Fred Harvey apparently got in on the “ground floor” of the last big thing going up in Chicago for over 20 years!

Back of postcard: From LaSalle Street east to Clark Street, on the north side of Adams Street, is Chicago’s largest and one of its most excellent office buildings, rising to a height of 530 feet above the street. The building is strikingly impressive by its very simplicity of architecture. Owned and operated by the Estate of Marshall Fields.

This picture must show the building entrance that was used to reach the Fred Harvey Drug Store.

K & K Flowers & Gifts, which is currently to the right of the little door next to the main “Bank of America Building 120” door is listed as also being at 120 West Adams, so my guess is that the old 118 address is now 120. There is no other doorway on Adams Street east of the little door. There is a Books-A-Million to the right of the Flower shop on the corner of Adams and Clark Street, but its address is 144 South Clark Street.

The Harlequin Room and Harvey House Grill were located at 919 North Michigan Avenue in the Palmolive Building. My Illinois Tollway placemat refers to it as the Playboy Building, as that company had moved in the late 1960s thru the 1980s.

This matchcover also adds a Patio Coffee Shop and a Hospitality Shop to the Fred Harvey facilities in the Palmolive Building.

The Palmolive Building is a 37-story Art Deco building at 919 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Built by Holabird & Root, it was completed in 1929 as Chicago’s most prestigious office building and was home to Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. It was world-renowned for its dynamic stepped design, and is considered to be among the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the world.

It was also famous for its rotating “Lindbergh Beacon” mounted atop a specially designed mast in 1930. It was intended to help guide airplanes safely to Midway Airport, and could be seen from airplanes 225 miles away. The original beacons atop this building were said to be the brightest in the world at 2,000,000,000 candlepower. The current beacon is 18,000 watts.

Today, the building has been converted for residential use by developer Draper and Kramer. The first two floors house upscale office and retail space. High-end condos in the 1.5-10.5 million dollar range make up the rest of the building.

The Harvey House was located at Riverside Plaza, 400 West Madison Avenue. This Art Deco building is on the Chicago River and faces the Civic Opera House on the east, Canal Street on the west, and Washington Street on the north. Note its similarity to the Palmolive Building, as they both were built at the same time by the same architects.

I have never seen a picture or description of the Harvey House. My old Illinois Tollway Oasis placemat map verifies that there was a Harvey House. The Harvey House Cookbook says it opened in 1962 and also lists a Coin Café there.

Two North Riverside Plaza was originally designed for the Chicago Daily News by Holabird & Root, marked a milestone in Chicago architecture when it was completed in 1929. It is one of Chicago’s great Art Deco buildings, and the first private building in Chicago to incorporate a public plaza in its design. It was also the first building in Chicago to use the concept of “air rights” in order to build over a railroad right-of-way. It pioneered a focus on the riverfront. It has 26 floors and is 302 feet high.

The Bowl and Bottle Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge was located in the Straus Building, or the Continental Companies Building, as it was later known and is referred to on the Illinois Tollway placemat. A matchbook I have gives its address as 71 East Jackson, which is the north/right side of the building. However, a Union Station matchbook advertizes other Chicago restaurants, including one at 308 South Michigan Avenue, the east/front side of the building:

Can the same restaurant have two addresses? There is a FedEx/Kinko’s at 71 East Jackson today, with its own door, as this Google Maps image shows:

The main building door to the left of it says “310 South Michigan,” even though the door is physically on Jackson. 310 South Michigan is the modern address of the Metropolitan Tower. Seen below, that Michigan Avenue entrance is south of the entrance where the large central arch once was. Was the central door on the right the original “308 S. Michigan Ave.” mentioned on the Union Station matchcover?

So, was the Michigan address a more generic address for the Bowl and Bottle, and the Jackson address more specific? More likely, the older Union Station matchbook refers to another facility...

I found online somewhere an image of a Fred Harvey 1933 Worlds Fair brochure “Where to Dine in Chicago” that advertizes two other operations in the Straus Building, the Embassy Room and the Tower Tavern:

The thirtieth floor was the Straus Tower Observatory, which was open to the public for viewing the city. The left postcard shows the corridor just inside the outer observatory, which would have been to the left, judging from the sloping roof. The Tower Tavern had to have been in this area on the top floor, very likely the highest Harvey House, depending upon what floor the Harlequin Room was in the Palmolive Building.

Designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White as was the Field Building, the Metropolitan Tower was named the Straus Building when completed in 1924. Though it was the first building in Chicago with 30 or more floors, it was never officially designated Chicago’s tallest building since the Chicago Temple Building, also completed in 1924, is taller by 92 feet but has seven fewer floors. The Straus Building and the Chicago Temple Building were the first to take advantage of the 1923 zoning ordinance; before then, no building in Chicago could be taller than 260 feet.

This U-shaped building, standing at 475 feet in height, fronts Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and Grant Park. The 40-foot pyramid at the top of the building is peaked by a 20-foot glass “beehive” ornament which emits a deep blue light, a prominent feature of Chicago's nighttime skyline. The beehive is supported by four limestone bisons.

The building’s base has been altered from its original design: rectangular window openings replaced giant arches on Michigan Avenue and Jackson Boulevard.

To the right/north of the Straus Building is the Santa Fe Building, originally known as Railway Exchange Building, a 1904 17-story office building built as a railway exchange for the Santa Fe railway. It was designed by D. H. Burnham & Company, which had offices on the 14th floor, as well as the firm’s successor, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White.

Located west of Canal Street, Union Station’s headhouse occupies an entire city block. At the station’s center is the ornate Beaux-Arts main waiting room, or “Great Hall,” a 110-foot-high atrium capped by a large barrel-vaulted skylight, considered one of the great interior public spaces in the United States.

The architect was Daniel Burnham of Chicago, who died before its completion. The firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White completed the work to Burnham’s designs. Work began on the massive project in 1913, and the station finally opened twelve years later on May 16, 1925.

Union Station had the elegant Gold Lion Restaurant [seen at the top of this page] and a Coffee Shop, according to the Illinois Tollway placemat. But one of my Fred Harvey Union Station matchbooks lists facilities in these 22 categories:

A more recent matchbook advertizes the Iron Horse Cocktail Lounge:

On the vintage aerial view of the Fair, note the Field Museum far upper left, the Shedd Aquarium, upper left, and the Adler Planetarium far right. Soldier Field is out of sight to left center. Enchanted Island is in the lower right part of Northerly Island, where the largest cove is seen.

In the modern view, Adler Planetarium is on the left, Shedd Aquarium is partly seen behind the right skyscraper, and Enchanted Island would have been about three-fourths down the grassy park, to the upper left of the distant dark building, which is a control tower from an airport that used to be out there.

Enchanted Island is labeled #43 on the following Official Guidebook map:

The Adler Planetarium [2], the Shedd Aquarium[1], and the Field Museum [6] are top to bottom along the left/north side. Soldier Field [17] is to the right of the latter.

Back of 1933 postcard: “The ‘Enchanted Island’ —five-acre wonderland at A Century of Progress— Chicago’s 1933 World’s Fair, where parents may leave their children while attending other Exhibition attractions. It has a Magic Mountain, a Tropical Garden, a Children’s Theater, a miniature railroad, performing animals, a wading pool and other marvels.”

The little cove along the Lagoon is in the foreground of the left postcard, Lake Michigan in the distance. There is a Restaurant near the center of the view, to the right of the colorful circular roof, and a Toys sign atop the building to the left. In the right drawing, the Restaurant would be right where the giraffe’s head is pointing, and the Toys building is seen further away next to the giant red wagon.

Was Fred Harvey’s Toy Town Tavern where the Restaurant sign was or the Toys sign? Fred drew Toy Town Tavern this way in his World’s Fair flyer. With the curved sign along the top, the look of the windows, and the projection to the building on the right, it roughly resembles the Restaurant building in the upper left postcard, but comparing one simple cartoon to another is inconclusive.

The following north-looking photo is a clip from the wonderful Encyclopedia of Chicago overview photo of the Lagoon and Northerly Island. It is similar in orientation to the right post card drawing above:

The Toys building is the low white one to the right of the giant boy in the wagon, and the Restaurant is on the far left end of the gray-roofed building that curves around the white mountain.

Enough cartoons and distant views! This stereoview finally solves the mystery — proving the Restaurant sign atop the cartoon postcards really said “Harvey T-”! [The Toys building next to the giant wagon actually said “American Flyer Train-”]

The 1933 view is not only an official card of Toy Town Tavern, it is the only postcard I have ever seen of it, such as it is. Fred Harvey is not mentioned on the card, nor is any further description given besides the official designation.

Fred Harvey describes it this way in his World’s Fair brochure previously referenced in the Straus Building section:

[Tony Sarg was a famous German American master puppeteer and illustrator.]

The modern view above right is taken from as far down the east side of the fairgrounds on Northerly Island that you can drive, where there is a parking lot for the old airport terminal and control tower. This is just south of the eastern end of the bridge that crossed the narrow part between the North and South Lagoons in the Fair aerial view, and at #33 on the Fair map. You cannot get a good view towards Enchanted Island from this place, so I took a photo back towards Chicago. The view includes famous surviving buildings from A Century of Progress: Soldier Field, left, Field Museum, center, and Shedd Aquarium, right.

Enchanted Island was perhaps best seen looking SE from the top of the Skyride on page 120 of the Official Guidebook of the Fair:

Toy Town Tavern is on the right end of the semi-circular building surrounding the mountain, nearest the cove. The Bing Maps inset has been rotated to show the shoreline is identical to the 1933 one. It is probably possible to walk on the trails to the Enchanted Island site, but I didn’t have the time to check that out. The road shown is south of the parking lot and not open to the public.

Read more about Enchanted Island on page 122 of the Official Guidebook of the Fair. Harvey’s eatery is mentioned on page 135.

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